1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of and apparatus for changing a recording density of a data storage system, and more particularly, to a method of varying a recording density of a data storage medium such that a user can easily change a recording density of a recording medium without changing a manufacturing process, and a disk drive using the method.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, hard disk drives (HDDs), which are data storage devices, contribute to the operation of a computer system by reading data written on a disk or writing data on the disk using a magnetic head. In line with a recent trend toward high capacity, high density, and compact devices, bits per inch (BPI), which are a measure of a recording density in a disk rotating direction, and tracks per inch (TPI), which are a measure of a recording density in a disk diameter direction, have increased. Accordingly, HDDs are required to have more delicate mechanisms.
Systems employing HDDs suffer a phenomenon that a specific region (e.g., a file allocation table (FAT)) of a disk in the HDDs is repeatedly accessed. In this case, when data is written on the specific region, the specific region is excessively magnetized, and thus data stored in regions adjacent to the specific region may be erased. If data in an important region such as the FAT are erased, it can cause serious problems in using the systems.
To solve the problems, a conventional method reduces a recording density of a predetermined region of a disk in a disk drive by changing a manufacturing process.
However, the conventional method still has a problem in that since the recording density of the disk is fixed in a manufacturing process, a user cannot freely designate a specific region according to use and cannot reduce a recording density of the specific region.